Attorneys attack former prosecutor in another high-profile murder trial

Siegler is accused of withholding evidence in 2nd murder case

Former Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler testified in a hearing for a new trial in the David Temple case last year. She maintained she did nothing wrong in that case.

Former Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler testified in a hearing for a new trial in the David Temple case last year. She maintained she did nothing wrong in that case.

Photo: Cody Duty, Staff

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Howard Guidry was convicted twice in trials in which the prosecutor was Kelly Siegler.

Howard Guidry was convicted twice in trials in which the prosecutor was Kelly Siegler.

Photo: Carlos Antonio Rios, Staff Photographer

Attorneys attack former prosecutor in another high-profile murder trial

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Howard Guidry was 18 years old when he was charged with being the triggerman in a 1994 murder-for-hire case that involved a Missouri City police officer and his estranged wife. Twice he was convicted and sent to death row, and both times the prosecutor who sent him there was Kelly Siegler, the legendary Houston attorney who has been accused of withholding evidence in another high-profile murder case.

Now Guidry's attorneys are saying she used the same tactics when she prosecuted their client, both in the original trial, which was overturned on appeal, and again when he was retried.

"Here it is - the same patterns and practices," said Gwendolyn Payton, a lawyer at Lane Powell PC, a Seattle law firm that took on Guidry's case pro bono. "And how many more are out there? It's just really troubling."

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In the wake of District Judge Larry Gist's ruling earlier this month, which said Siegler withheld evidence in the trial of David Temple and recommended a new trial for the Katy man, lawyers for Guidry are preparing to file amendments to a 2013 appeal explaining how her behavior in Guidry's case is similar to what she did in the Temple case.

"We are alleging the same acts, independent of the Temple case," Payton said. "We didn't even know about the Temple case until that ruling."

Houston's defense lawyers have long groused that Siegler continually pushed the envelope of what she could legally say and do in trials. Iconic Texas attorney Richard "Racehorse" Haynes once famously cautioned that Siegler was skilled enough to convict an innocent man.

In the Temple case, Siegler was criticized by Judge Gist for 36 instances of prosecutorial misconduct, most of which stemmed from withholding or delaying the release of evidence that could have helped Temple's defense lawyers.

Siegler has not returned calls for comment or issued a statement since Gist's ruling on July 7. She has maintained she did nothing wrong in the Temple case and that he is guilty of killing his pregnant wife, Belinda, in 1997.

Temple is serving a life sentence. Whether he will get a new trial is now a matter for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Information collected by prosecutors or law enforcement that could help the defense is known as "Brady material," because of the U.S. Supreme Court case that decided the issue, "Brady v. Maryland."

Fingerprints were found

There are several striking resemblances between the Brady material that was not released in Temple's 2007 trial and Guidry's two death penalty trials, including evidence of other suspects and exculpatory evidence about the murder weapon.

In what may be the most damning example, Guidry's lawyers were never told that crime scene investigators found fingerprints that were not Guidry's on Farah Fratta's car door and front fender where the shooter would have stood. The fingerprints were from another man who resembled Guidry and was friends with one of the suspects in the case.

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The fingerprints that were found next to the body of the estranged wife were never disclosed to Guidry's defense lawyers. The man resembling Guidry, who was part of the ring of suspects in the case, was never charged. Police investigating the slaying found human blood in the car he owned, which matched the description of the getaway car that witnesses saw, including having only one headlight.

In an appeal with hundreds of pages of arguments and sworn affidavits, Guidry's lawyers allege numerous instances of misconduct. They contend Siegler hid the identity of the suspect resembling Guidry, his fingerprints and the fact that there was blood on the seat of his car.

In the Temple ruling, Gist took Siegler to task after she testified that Brady material did not need to be disclosed if she didn't believe it.

"Of enormous significance was the prosecutor's testimony at the habeas hearing that apparently favorable evidence did not need to be disclosed if the state did not believe it was true," Gist wrote.

Lawyers for Guidry say the investigation of the man whose fingerprints were found is just one of the many pieces of evidence that was withheld.

"The trial counsel for sure never got that evidence," Payton said. "It should have been disclosed under Brady, I don't think anyone can argue unless you're using the 'Kelly Siegler rule' that she didn't find it credible."

Guidry ended up on death row with his neighbor, Joseph Prystash, and the victim's husband, Robert Fratta, who told many people he wanted his wife killed because he was going though a bitter custody battle.

Pystash's girlfriend, Mary Gipp, is the cornerstone of the allegations against Guidry, including repeatedly testifying against him.

"Gipp was happy to point the finger at her 18-year-old neighbor, Mr. Guidry, instead of her boyfriend Prystash," according to the appeal.

When Guidry was arrested for an unrelated robbery, he had a .38 caliber pistol that had belonged to Fratta, which jurors heard about.

Whether it was the murder weapon or not, it had belonged to the mastermind behind the hit. However, Guidry's attorneys noted that Guidry did live next door to the middleman, Prystash.

"Prystash was happy to give the murder weapon to the black kid from next door who had nothing to do with the Frattas," the appeal reads.

Jurors also heard that the bullets found at the crime scene matched that gun. However, the defense was not told that the bullets were tested several times and were continually found not to match. One expert eventually changed his decision. That was the only expert who defense lawyers or jurors heard about, according to the appeal.

Convictions were reversed

Guidry and Fratta saw their convictions reversed for conduct by Siegler. She admitted unlawful confessions into evidence and used hearsay evidence.

In Guidry's case, a federal appeals court ruled that his statement to police was illegally coerced. The statements he made were repeated to a psychologist hired by the defense who later testified against Guidry. Also, hearsay evidence from Gipp, the middleman's girlfriend, was part of the reason the case was tossed out the first time.

In what now seems a telling detail, Siegler was able to again get the inadmissible evidence in front of the jury when Guidry was retried.

"The very same evidence that prompted the 5th Circuit to reverse, came right in," said John Neeleman, one of Guidry's lawyers. "(Siegler) had absolutely no conscience about it."

In addition to numerous claims of withholding Brady material and other grounds for appeal, Siegler delayed the release of other information, including hundreds of hours of jailhouse phone calls that she said contained an admission of guilt. Defense lawyers did not get the hours of audiotape until 17 days before the death penalty trial, court records show.

"The State manipulated the tapes so that at the trial, the jury heard a crazy quilt of spliced-together, fragmentary excerpts of multiple conversations, shorn of context," according to the appeal.

In what might be the strangest fact that was not disclosed to Guidry's lawyers, an eyewitness changed her story after being hypnotized.

A married couple who lived across the street heard a shot, then looked out to see what was going on. The wife said she saw two men in and around the garage during the shooting, and then a getaway car with a driver. After the hypnosis, which was arranged by investigators at the Harris County Sheriff's Office, she said there was just one man in the garage and a getaway driver.

Defense lawyers never heard about the earlier statement or the hypnosis.

Support from exoneree

Procedurally, it is hard to know what may happen next in Guidry's case. He does not have an execution date, which means his case remains on a federal court docket. The appeal was filed more than two years ago and the Texas Attorney's General's Office has not filed an answer to any of the allegations. The office has not responded to requests for comment on Guidry's case.

And in a twist that illustrates how small Houston's legal landscape really is, Guidry has found a champion in Anthony Graves, exonerated in part because of Siegler's work as a special prosecutor in Wharton County.

Graves, who spent 18 years behind bars on death row, was granted a retrial and eventually freed after Siegler reviewed the evidence and announced that she believed Graves was innocent.

Graves, one of the state's most famous exonerees, took up Guidry's cause long before Gist ruled that Temple deserves a new trial. The exonerated inmate knew Guidry in passing while the two did time on death row, but Graves got to read the voluminous court records after he was released. He then became an advocate for Guidry.

The fact that defense attorneys were not told that several ballistics experts said tests were inconclusive was one of several sticking points for Graves.

"If the ballistics didn't match but you used the ballistics to convict him, he didn't get a fair trial," Graves said.

Graves, who considers Siegler a good friend, said this week that Guidry did not get a fair shake from the legendary prosecutor.

"It needs to be retried," Graves said. "He needs a fair trial. Whether he's innocent or guilty, it doesn't matter if he didn't get a fair trial."